How To Create A Compelling Blog

Alyssa Rosenberg writes about the launch of Bill Simmons' new site Grantland (a reference I presume to Grantland Rice, but I may be wrong.) It is a pretentious name for Simmmons, whose stuff I really really like, to adopt. And it justifies Rosenberg's observation:

The challenge Grantland faces, I think, is to convince readers that even though they might not be familiar with the subject of the piece, and even though it might take a serious chunk of time to read, itís consistently worth the investment. Very, very few publications have that kind of pull: the New Yorker for one kind of audience, the New York Review of Books for another. If Grantland can become the first web-native publication to pull that feat off, itíll be impressive.

As I wrote before, I really really like Simmons' work, but he's not going to produce that type of material, imo. His strengths, as I see them, are apparent in his column at espn.com and in his podcasts. Funny, quick and well paced. I do not think "30 for 30" is all that Simmons thinks it is. And it seems he might be going for a "30 for 30" vibe. In any event, Rosenberg does raise an interesting question - can longer form writing be successful commercially and creatively on the Web? Let's think about that on the flip.

Rosenberg's mention of The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books seems off base to me. Neither succeeds as a web publication, I don't think. Sure an occasional big story will break there, but they are not big web sites are they?

I think the blog format is different. I was a front page writer at daily kos from December 2004 to June 2006, and it was always my view that no matter what you put up, you needed to put up something new every hour. No matter what.

Sometimes we would write long form essays. Sometimes quick hits. Sometimes stuff in the middle. But always something new.

The New Yorker does not, and can not, do that. I'm not at all sure Simmons is capable of doing it either. He has a lot of his friends (and some of them are good) writing for the site. But none of them strike me as people who will be filling the page either.

Simmons has an amazing amount of Twitter followers, something like 1.5 million, and he tweets a lot. When something new pops on Grantland, Simmons will be sure to tweet it out as everyone seemingly does. But will that keep folks coming back? Mebbe for a while. But is it a viable long term strategy? I don't think so. At some point, the site will have to stand on its own.

Blogs that update at a slower pace are not going to be huge, no matter how big the marketing advantages. In my view, that is not the nature of the form.

I think Grantland is not likely to succeed. But I wish Simmons the best of luck.

most people I know still read and love long-form...some stories or points can't be wrapped up in a few paragraphs.

Blogs and quick-hitting is for downtime at work...a 3 day weekend ya dive into some longform.

I read a theory somewheres that magazines and newspapers are hurting because they tried to copy TV and the blogs with shorter articles and quick-hits...the opposite was the play. Go more in depth, go longer, fill the void of depth in the marketplace.

beautiful leatherbound copy of Paul Theroux's latest non-fiction, "The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Life on the Road." Gold print on cover. Thin paper and beautiful maps inside each cover. Plus an elastic band book mark. Delightful. Inside: pure Theroux. Many quotes from his earlier travel writings. But also lots of pithy snippets from D.H. Lawrence, Poe, and the like.

as I'm not really into sportswriting, generally speaking, and a peek over there made me go "oh this looks boring as hell."

I think the design is terrible. Successful blogs hit you with a lot of content in their design...Gawker properties (including Deadspin, which I assume Grantland is competing with) have about 12 stories available to immediately click on when you go to their sites, as do Wonkette, the Awl, Eater, SeriousEats, etc. Obviously ThinkProgress has recently redesigned with that approach as well. Maybe Simmons thinks this is going to go over big on the iPad. Dave Eggers' involvement is obvious, "LET'S JUST MAKE EVERYTHING AS PLAIN AS POSSIBLE. WHITE SPACE!"

Political blogging is interesting and a bit exceptional to me because there is so much cross-promotion. Not many people getting rich off of it though. I assume Simmons would like to make a buck or two from this venture.

I am overwhelmed by main pages on some sites with too much going on...I prefer a simple design. Not to mention overloaded main pages cause havoc for old browsers and old machines.

Talkleft's design is nice...latest post right there, easy scroll down to other recent posts, and the convenient linkage and user features to the side, not overwheleming the main page or the recent posts.

Ultimately, though, it's owned by ESPN, and the parent company has already made its presence known, choosing the site's name, which Simmons is less than enthusiastic about. He worries that it sounds pretentious, he told me, but the higher-ups at ESPN "loved it, and they've been so supportive of the site. You've got to pick your battles."

Simmons will have what it takes to attract my regular readership -- he hit me right off with a name, Jimmy Kimmel, and a topic, late night tv talk shows, neither of which I find in the least interesting, and so I ended up quickly skimming that very long first entry. Blah and double blah.

As for The New Yorker and the NYRevBks, I think you're right -- neither is much of an online presence, at least in the circles where I hang out. The former is a much changed and diluted cultural product from the days -- 20 yrs ago and more -- when it was a unique literary and cultural force in the land. The latter I occasionally come across by accident on google, resulting in a look-see at an archived piece. Even then, I don't have the patience to slog through some of their 10,000 word long think pieces that I once could manage in the print form. Online I probably feel half as patient and twice as rushed -- so I just don't bother with many long form articles these days.

I might visit Simmons again and give him another chance if he gets linked favorably elsewhere where I normally read and it's about something a little more compelling and fresh than late night teevee.